Luminescent Alliums.

Chapter 24 - mixed signals

He was staring at himself,

Tommy was looking his worst enemy in the face, and it was like peering into a fucking cracked mirror. The only real difference was the toxic green eyes that were most definitely not his. Tommy had to stop himself from gasping out in a mix of shock and fear.

"It was you" he mumbled, mind flashing back to the hidden room Sapnap and Tommy had found. Dream nodded, why was his face so sincere? The older of the two tried to move closer to Tommy, causing him to stumble backwards.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Theseus," Dream said gently.

"Don't call me that" Tommy snapped back with surprising ferocity.

"Techno did"

"He had a different reason to" Tommy said. Dream started to chuckle, slowly getting louder. Tommy shuddered as Dream continued to chuckle coldly, he could feel his sanity draining.

"Ah yes, the Greek mythological definition of why we chose it. Yet when Technoblade chose it, not knowing your history. He meant it with violence, he meant to harm you. We chose it as a warning" Dream's laugh faded, but his tone was still cold.

Ranboo shifted, Tommy's gaze shooting straight to him, The enderman's own gaze was fixated on Dream.

"Who's We?" he asked, Dream shrugged

"No one that matters, at least, not now," he said. Ranboo seemed to be satisfied with the answer, or atleast didn't care enough to react. Dream turned back to Tommy, he sighed enveloping his clone into a hug. Tommy shoved him away, a swift punch landing on his chin.

Dream cried out in pain, as he tripped backwards before catching his balance.

"That wasn't very nice" he scowled, rubbing his jaw. The manic look had returned in Dream's eyes. An apology bubbling up in Tommy's throat.

"Dream-" he began before he was punched back, he collapsed to the ground in pain, blood spurting from his nose. Dream hoisted him up by the collar of his shirt, the shirt that was now covered in blood.

"You need to remember some things, Theseus," he spat. Tommy cowered. Dream's face softened ever so slightly.

"Things don't need to be this way," he said gently. Before his grip tightened pulling Tommy up until he was nearly standing. "All I want is my dear brother's back, for things to be the way they used to be" he dropped Tommy back onto the ground. "And I won't stop till I get that back". He began to walk away, leaving Ranboo to drag Tommy along. This time he let him.

Forty five minutes, they walked for forty five minutes before Dream suddenly stopped by a cave. He examined it for a few more moments, before motioning for the other two to follow him in. Dream sat down on the floor, beginning a campfire. Tommy allowed himself to fall to the ground. At least the fire was warm, Dream suddenly pulled him closer. Tommy flinched but didn't do anything more than that, the result of the last reaction was still making his head throb. Dream tilted Tommy's head upwards and then to the side.

"It's not broken," he concluded.

"What?" Tommy asked, flinching when Dream raised an eyebrow

"Your nose," he said. "But you're not going to be doing anything drastic for a while"

"What the fuck do you mean by drastic?" he burst out.

"Well, clearly you won't cooperate with me like intended, so we're going to have to do some bonding. The three of us" Dream concluded, the tone indicating that that was the final word on the subject. Tommy shuddered, he didn't want to know what family bonding meant, yet. He had a vague idea.